Sam Allardyce today revealed that he wants to sign eight players before the start of West Ham's new season in the Championship.

Allardyce, speaking before he left with his squad for a pre-season trip to Switzerland, also underlined that there will be no firesale of high-profile players from Upton Park and that Scott Parker, Robert Green and Carlton Cole would only leave if potential bidders matched the club's valuation of them.

Parker and Green were both due to go to Switzerland with the rest of manager Allardyce's squad but Cole, who is wanted by Stoke, has remained in London.

Allardyce, who has appointed former Tottenham and Leyton Orient player Ian Hendon as the club's development coach, said: "The reality is that there are 11 first-team squad players who have left since the season ended - 12 if you include Benni McCarthy.

"The only players gone for fees so far, though, have been Da Costa and Kovac. The rest were on loan or out of contract.

"That has helped the financial fall-out of being relegated but now, unless there are four or five of the young players ready to come in, we probably need to sign eight from outside."

However, Cole, Green and Parker are expected to depart before the start of the new campaign and Allardyce admitted: "The three of them will all probably all want to go to clubs in the Premier League if they can.

"We will just have to see how things develop. In my experience people will think there will be a firesale but the owners [David Sullivan and David Gold] have told me that will not be the case - that they want the true value for every player if they are going to sell him.

"There will be clubs who will believe they can pinch a player just before the deadline and my experience tells me that someone will try and do a deal in the last few days, leaving us little or no time to find a replacement.

"Then, it is better to bite the bullet and keep them because they will help get us promoted. I'm hoping that, if these clubs want our players, they make an offer soon because, if they have to go, it will be easier to replace them now than in a month's time."

West Ham have included two trialists, Brazilian defender Hernani da Rosa and former Bolton midfield player Joey O'Brien, in their squad for Switzerland.

Meanwhile, West Ham have asked the Italian Football Federation to suspend Alessandro Diamanti's player registration with Brescia after the club's failure to pay the Hammers their latest instalment fee following his transfer last August.